finding a home - suggestion needed (St. Louis, St. Charles: condos, buying a house, neighborhood)

[stlouisfans]

Hi there,

We feel pretty excited to move to St Louis this summer. Can anyone give us some info on which communities would be good for us? We are thinking of buying a house, and may also consider condo. Both of us need to comminute to work every day (one in Washington University and one in Creve Coeur). We also have a 20-month child, and have to consider school districts as well. Thank you guys in advance!

[aragx6]

So I guess the fact that you're looking for good schools for your little one that you plan on staying around a while?

What kind of neighborhood do you desire? older with charm, walkable with restaurants nearby or newer with plenty of big box retail stores,

Anyway, where I suggest you look is probably going to depend mostly on your budget- would you mind sharing what that is?

[stlouisfans]

Thank you for the reply. yes, we are looking for a good school distrct and easy access to shopping as well. We are not big fan of 'old charmings', and budget should not exceed 300K. Since the two work places are about 30 min driving apart each other (if no traffic jam), we hope the idea location will be in the reasonable driving distance to both work places. Will this cut off many options?

[Fishtacos]

Why not Creve Coeur itself? It's a very good choice.

[RickMG]

Originally Posted by Fishtacos

Why not Creve Coeur itself? It's a very good choice.

Very good suggestion as 300k will buy you a very nice home in Creve Coeur and Wash U is not a bad drive from there, easily less than a half hour even if you just drove Olive or Page to Skinker.

[wustu87]

I saw this post and had to reply since I currently live in the Creve Coeur area and work at Wash U myself. The commute used to be great but now it stinks because it is so unpredictable. The highway 40 shutdown is overloading Olive, Ladue and Clayton and on normal days it takes about 30 min to drive 8 miles which isn't too bad. (It used to take ~20.) But on bad days it now can take 45 minutes to over an hour because the roads are now running so close to capacity. I can't take it anymore and we are moving to another house in the Ladue district which does not require a commute that "lengthy" (in quotes since it shouldn't be lengthy!). We were actually planning on moving closer in anyway, but that traffic problem (that will not end until 2010) did have a substantial factor. My suggestion for you would be in Olivette, a nice suburb in the excellent Ladue school district with plenty of homes in the mid 300's to 400's (which you can bargain down in this market!). Stay south of Olive so you don't have to drive on it in rush hour and close to I-170. Take Old Bonhomme and Delmar when you can and avoid Ladue, Olive and Clayton roads during rush hour. Is the job of the one working in Creve Coeur west or east of 270? It makes a difference in your commute!

[aragx6]

Your budget, while a bit low for the West County areas you're looking at, is not a major hurdle, but I do suspect your dislike of charming older houses may pose a problem. In the communities that would make the most sense for your commute, new construction is rare and very expensive.

In Olivette your 300k can get you a small but nice home with great schools, but it will almost certainly be older with an older kitchen, probably built in the 50s or 60s when that area was first booming.

If you can live with that and make improvements as you live there, it's a very solid investment.

In Creve Coeur (which will be a rough-ish commute for a couple of years) your money will go a bit further, and the schools are still very good but the homes will still be older. Like this place: Single Family Home - 12918 Somerton Ridge Dr, St Louis, MO, 63141 - Realtor.com


If you'd rather sacrifice commute you could look in Maryland Heights or even St. Charles, but your commute will grow longer with each westward mile.

[boomster]

Clayton, Olivette, Creve Couer are all good choices and since it may be the best buyers market in 15-20 years, I'd think you could find your pick of great deals.

Good luck!

[Fishtacos]

Originally Posted by wustu87

I saw this post and had to reply since I currently live in the Creve Coeur area and work at Wash U myself. The commute used to be great but now it stinks because it is so unpredictable. The highway 40 shutdown is overloading Olive, Ladue and Clayton and on normal days it takes about 30 min to drive 8 miles which isn't too bad. (It used to take ~20.) But on bad days it now can take 45 minutes to over an hour because the roads are now running so close to capacity. I can't take it anymore and we are moving to another house in the Ladue district which does not require a commute that "lengthy" (in quotes since it shouldn't be lengthy!). We were actually planning on moving closer in anyway, but that traffic problem (that will not end until 2010) did have a substantial factor. My suggestion for you would be in Olivette, a nice suburb in the excellent Ladue school district with plenty of homes in the mid 300's to 400's (which you can bargain down in this market!). Stay south of Olive so you don't have to drive on it in rush hour and close to I-170. Take Old Bonhomme and Delmar when you can and avoid Ladue, Olive and Clayton roads during rush hour. Is the job of the one working in Creve Coeur west or east of 270? It makes a difference in your commute!

The HWY 40 construction will be completed in 1.5 years. These are people moving to St. Louis, ...and unless they are only moving for a year, they should be thinking longer term than 1.5 years. Also, I'd be curious about where in Illinois they live(Chicago) or other places they've lived, because in comparison to many major metros, St. Louis traffic is really pretty minimal relatively speaking. I'd also add to the original poster than rush hour in St. Louis ends earlier than many other cities too.

[STLCardsBlues1989]

Just looking on the map, Clayton is in between them (closer to Wash U.), but it may be more pricey. But it'll probably have more new construction and condos. Not sure about schools. University City is also right next to Wash U, but farther from Creve Coeur than Clayton. I think there's a thread on this forum about University City schools, if you want to check that out.

Others in the area: Richmond Heights? Ladue may be too pricey.